Friday, March 28, 2014

The comments just keep coming... they are mostly from our owners.WHAT A GREAT GROUP OF OWNERS!Comments are running about 80 to one in favor of our petition, and we will answer some of the negative comments/objections (there aren’t many!) on Monday.In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has signed and/or commented, and if you want to sign our Petition in Support of Cleaner Woodstoves and Cleaner Air, please click here!Why is the petition to Gina McCarthy in support of the NSPS important to you?

This being the only source of heat for our home I want it to be clean burning and efficient and expect the product I use meet these standards.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

We have listened to both sides (state air regulators and the
woodstove industry) in the debate over the new EPA regulations. We have
concluded that the new regulations are (1) the “right thing to do” because the
public health benefits outweigh the costs of compliance, and that (2) clean,
efficient and affordable stoves can be made under the proposed new
standards.We initiated our petition
because we wanted to let the EPA know that we think their targets are achievable,
and to give a voice to wood burners who care deeply about wood heat and want to
push the industry toward higher efficiency and lower emissions.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Here are a few other
improvements we have made recently to the Ideal Steel Hybrid:

We cut a damper adjustment
scale in the ash lip.Lots of people
operate their stoves in a narrow range for long periods of time, and this makes
it easier to remember your best operating settings.

The andirons have been
tricky.Before we settled on andirons
that folded forward, we prototyped andirons that folded over on their sides,
moved laterally to both sides of the load dooropening, folded in the middle, and/or were removable.We still like our current version best, in
part because it is simple, and in part because one can move the andirons with a
poker, or the toe of a boot.The andiron
plate also acts as an air deflector that helps eliminate smoke spillage in
installations with marginal draft.

To lessen ash spillage onto
the ash lip, we have added a slot between the front of the andiron and the body
of the stove so that fly ash on the andiron plate will slide back into the
stove instead of onto the ash lip. We
have also shortened the andirons from 7” to 5” so that it’s easy to load over
them most of the time. We’re also
working on a little tool to brush ash off the andiron plate before folding it
forward.

Friday, March 14, 2014

The next Gearhead Hybrid Stove is under construction right now (prototype only). We are building a slightly smaller firebox (about 2.6 cubic feet), and version 3.0 of our hybrid combustion design. The Ideal Steel Hybrid (going into production soon) had the lowest high burn emissions on record, and with new regulations coming, there’s an incentive to flatten the emissions curve even more. One of the most important things for us is the combustion design, but we'll do a lot of testing over the summer before “going public” with the internal workings of this stove.

This stove will definitely be sideloading (left or right), and have a top and rear vent. We plan to make an inexpensive basic version - a utilitarian workhorse that is easy to use but has some nice details (see Basic Version, at right). Then we think we will make a steel Franklin stove. Some of our favorite antique soapstone stoves have Franklin stove designs, and we manufacture three gas stoves with Franklin designs, including our unique 17 inch tall Mini Franklin gas stove.

Franklin Stove Design lends itself perfectly to steel fabrication. We plan to alter the shape of the wings, ash lip, and door as well as the stove ornamentation, to reflect different periods: Arts and Crafts, Gothic, Transitional, or Modern for example. The sketches at the right and below are not final by any means, they are just offered to show the general direction we are heading in.

1800's Franklin Soapstone

We plan to beta-test this stove extensively next winter, and have it available in June/July of 2015.

Monday, March 10, 2014

We’ve made a number of improvements to the IDEAL STEEL Hybrid over the winter, and many were based on comments/suggestions from our beta testers. We’ll try to cover some of the changes on this blog over the next few weeks.

Friday, March 7, 2014

We’ve added a port for a catalytic temperature probe just above the center of the loading door. The probes are simple bimetallic coils attached to a stainless rod. We have been testing the bimetallic probe against a thermocouple: it’s certainly “in the ballpark” and gives a good idea of catalyst light-off.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

We are offering pre-production
prices for the IDEAL STEEL Hybrid for the next several months (see below).We won’t actually begin shipping IDEAL STEEL Hybrids until June, for one simple reason:it’s still cold and we haven’t quite finished with Beta testing yet.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

As a result of the recently proposed EPA regulations, non-catalytic stove manufacturers (and their surrogates) have stepped up attacks on catalytic stoves in comments to the EPA, and public meetings with EPA.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Several
people have recently asked about how BTU output is determined. BTU/hr rating is
basically a speed and efficiency rating. The (1) greater the number of
POUNDS OF WOOD CONSUMED PER HOUR, and (2) the higher the OVERALL EFFICIENCY,
then the HIGHER THE BTU/hr OUTPUT RATING.